By URN
The Ministry of Health has allayed fears of a looming lockdown following viral social media claims around a purported surge in COVID-19 infections in Uganda.
Speaking to URN in an interview on Tuesday, Dr Col Henry Kyobe, the COVID-19 incident commander in the Ministry, said what their surveillance teams are seeing and the trends in cases testing positive for the viral disease are not unique from what has been happening over the past year.
Kyobe said they have only been picking dozens of positive cases from thousands of samples tested regularly for pneumonia-related illnesses.
Claims of a new lethal variant of COVID-19 followed reports from Bullisa district that ten oil workers under the Tilenga project area, being operated by TotalEnergies, had tested positive during a testing exercise within the camp.
In an interview with URN on Tuesday, Robert Mugabe, the Buliisa district Health Educator, confirmed that all ten first presented with COVID-19-like symptoms, including severe headache, fever, cough and sore throat before being tested.
Explaining that all the cases were minor, Mugabe further revealed that currently 8 out of the 10 had completed their treatment, while two are still undergoing treatment at the COVID-19 treatment unit established within the camp and that they are responding well to treatment.
He in addition noted that another 50 individuals working within the camp are being closely monitored for any symptoms of the disease.
However, according to Kyobe, such results obtained from a camp or cluster of people working or living together do not cause for alarm as transmission of respiratory infections is quicker under such circumstances. Even there, he says, there haven’t been a big number of people presenting with severe forms of the disease, which would under normal circumstances cause concern.
Asked whether this scare should be a wake-up call for Ugandans to seek booster doses against COVID-19, the official noted that while this would be ideal, the distribution of the jabs across the country is not currently clear, considering that many of them had been withdrawn due to non-use.
Earlier, the Health Minister in charge of Primary HealthCare, Margret Muhanga Mugisa, had said that the country had borrowed up to 80 million dollars to procure COVID-19 vaccines, but these have been destroyed after they expired in health facilities.
Mugabe has cautioned the community, especially those being accommodated in the oil camps, to remain calm and strictly adhere to the COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs), including regular hand washing, wearing masks and social distancing among others in order to prevent further spread of the virus.
He also urged residents in the district and those working in the oil fields in the district to seek immediate medical attention should they present with COVID-19-like symptoms.
